


This Love Is Ours

by xviichapters



Series: 'Weak' And Other Songs [6]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Bad Days, Conscription, Don't last forever, Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, Inspired by Music, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 17:24:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12040665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xviichapters/pseuds/xviichapters
Summary: There's something Joshua is forgetting.





	This Love Is Ours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ripsabrina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ripsabrina/gifts).



> All I can do is keep writing you stories and hope it makes things a little better <3

Joshua wakes up and there’s something immediately off about the day.

Bright sunlight streams in through the windows, painting his dorm walls yellow, and for some reason, all is quiet. No doors opening and slamming shut, heavy scuffling of feet, or the occasional profanity as students rushed to class.

The nagging feeling still hasn’t left Joshua. What is it about today?

He glances down to his phone and right at that second, it starts vibrating angrily. He quickly scans the thin notifications bar at the top – _6 missed calls, 20 new text messages._

_“Fuck,”_ he cursed softly, picking up the call, “Hello?”

“JOSHUA HONG, WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN!” is the first thing Joshua hears as soon as he puts the phone to his ear. It’s Soonyoung, and he sounds livid. “IT’S TWELVE FUCKING PM AND WE HAVE A PRESENTATION AT TWO, AND THE MODEL’S NOT READY YET. GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!”

_Shit,_ “I’m sorry, I overslept, I’m on my way.”

“You better be or I swear to god I will _slay_ you,” Soonyoung threatens, then the call drops and Joshua scrambles to put on some jeans, find a clean shirt, and brush his teeth all in five minutes. Fuck his hair. Birds can nest in it for all he cared.

He figures that’s what’s wrong about today – he forgot about the presentation.

Still, the nagging feeling wouldn’t go away.

_September 14 th, September 14th._

What is he forgetting?

Joshua reaches the university in record time. He’s in the Department of Architecture, in the School of Design and Built Environment, which is notoriously known for pushing their students to the point of breaking. He’s in his third year of study and the workload is greater than ever, leaving hardly any room to eat or sleep or even breathe. He stayed up for 24 hours straight prior to crashing out for twelve hours last night, which is the reason for his tardiness today.

When he arrives its 12:23pm and Soonyoung is fuming.

He hands him a glue gun and says, “Stick all these wood pieces to the base according to my markings.”

Then Soonyoung brushes past him with more wooden sticks, presumably heading to Workshop to have them cut.

Joshua gets to work.

It’s mind-numbing methodological work and his thoughts wander again, to the feeling that’s been nagging him since he woke up. September 14th. What is it?

His mind combs through past text messages and rushed phone calls in the previous days, wondering if there is another appointment he’s missing at this exact moment – a consultation with a teacher maybe, or some chore he forgot to do.

His hand itches to reach out to his phone to check his calendar, but Soonyoung’s glaring at him so he continues working on the model and pushes the feeling away.

_Too bad to the other appointment,_ he thinks, but it sets off a funny feeling in his stomach, some sort of immense guilt, which tells him the other appointment is probably really important.

The clock ticks down to presentation hour.

“Joshua?” a gentle voice breaks him out of his thoughts. Soonyoung’s set him to gluing down the plastic roof and sidings onto the model now, and if he’s not careful, the glue could melt through the plastic and ruin everything. “Joshua, it’s 1:45pm, have you eaten anything yet?”

_It’s 1:45pm? Fuck!_ Joshua rushes to put everything together and ends up burning himself in the process.

“Joshua, you didn’t eat anything last night either. At least have this chocolate.” It’s Jeonghan playing the typical mom-friend role again, and he’s pressing a sweet piece of Cadbury against his lips but Joshua refuses to open his mouth _because he has work to do._

Joshua shakes his head and nudges Jeonghan’s hand away with his chin, frowning crossly. Jeonghan sighs. The elder mutters something under his breath as he walks away, and for a second, for a _split-second,_ Joshua thinks he hears something that might help him recall _exactly_ what he was forgetting today.

But Jeonghan moves away too fast and suddenly Joshua’s lost focus, the glue dripping onto a corner of the plastic roof, a permanent circular blob quickly cooling and forming there because it’s too damn hot for Joshua to scrape it off with his fingers, and Soonyoung’s yelling at him – _“Fucking **hell** Joshua Hong, we don’t have time for this!” – _and he’s trying to bite back tears, all thoughts of the appointment he was missing forgotten.

Their square roof ends up having a blob at each corner like some sort of pagoda roof but with a modern twist.

Joshua messes up his part of the presentation and Soonyoung glares at him the rest of the time. The other members of his group give him pitying looks, which honestly feels just as bad, if not worse. A comment comes up for the roof and, “Although it’s a clever use of the hot glue gun, the style is largely unsuitable for an Anglo-centric post-modern building meant for forward-looking IT businesses. Also, it just doesn’t go with the rest of the design.”

 The professors don’t tell them their scores, of course, but Joshua knows his group’s presentation paled in comparison to the rest of their studio mates’.

It’s 6:00pm and the end of the design charrette and their model gets stupid comments like, “Nice! But what if people want privacy?” and “Great effort!” and “Funny roof.”

Joshua plants face first onto his desk and feels like crying.

There’s a warm hand on his back and Jeonghan is there rubbing comforting circles which threaten to lull him to sleep.

“Do you want to go wash your face or something?” Jeonghan murmurs by his ear.

Joshua nods. He would like very much to be anywhere but the studio.

It has been a horrible, terrible day and added to that, he still can’t figure out what appointment he was missing (or already missed.) The feeling is more than guilt now, its shame, because he forgot something so important and still couldn’t remember it.

Joshua is close to crying but he doesn’t.

He burrows his head into Jeonghan’s shoulder though, and lets the older boy pat his hair. In another time… Someone else would be comforting him like this after a bad day, but right now his best friend would have to do.

Jeonghan pulls away and shoots him a small smile. “Are you feeling better now?”

Joshua nods. “Yeah.”

A beat of silence.

“Jeonghan… Do you know if– Do you know whether I’m forgetting something? Was there something important today that I was supposed to go to? Did I ever tell you?”

Jeonghan blinks, a little surprised by the sudden outburst. “Wait, you mean…”

“I forgot something today,” Joshua says, and for some reason he could feel his eyes watering, “It’s something really important but I don’t know what it is, and it’s been such a bad day, and I’m so _upset_ Hannie.”

“Shua…” Jeonghan sighs. “Shua, let’s go back to your seat and I’ll tell you, okay? I thought you knew.”

“Know what?”

Jeonghan’s smile is small but pitying, and Joshua _hates_ it. He feels small, and pathetic, and _stupid_ under his gaze. He shrugs the elder’s hands off his shoulder. “You know what? Forget it. I’ll figure it out by myself.”

He storms away before Jeonghan can get a word out.

All he needs is to check his phone, really. Then he would know what he forgot. Getting his phone means returning to the studio where Soonyoung was probably at, though, so Joshua steels his features and barges inside.

He stops short, though, when he sees an unfamiliar person sitting as his table.

Their back is faced towards him, and it seems like the person is talking to Soonyoung. Soonyoung looks… Well, he looks scared shitless, actually.

Neither Soonyoung nor the new person realized Joshua’s presence.

Joshua creeps forward and that’s when he really observes what the person is wearing. It’s clear that it’s a man – broad and thick – sitting on the chair in a way Joshua had only seen in military movies or cop shows.

The man is wearing an army uniform, and there’s a cap on his head in the same grey-green camouflage material. There’s small black stitching on the strap, and when Joshua gets close enough to read it, he stops short.

**_CPL. CHOI S.C._ **

And then it comes crashing down on him. The appointment he missed today.

He steps forward, scarcely daring to breathe, and then–

_There he is._

His hair’s all gone, and he looks stronger and tougher than he did 21 months ago, but it’s the same side profile, it’s the same funny ears that stick out from the side of his head.

Joshua doesn’t think. He wraps his arms around the other from behind and he fits _perfectly._

“Seungcheol,” he breathes.

The man turns around, and there’s that beautiful face, that gummy smile, the dimples that dip in every time he stretches his mouth wide, and the crinkles in the corner of his eyes.

“Seungcheol,” Joshua sobs, pulling him tight and scrambling onto his lap, “Seungcheol Seungcheol Seungcheol.”

He says it like a prayer, like he can’t get enough of it. _Seungcheol Seungcheol Seungcheol Seungcheol._

He’s here. His boy is home.

“Hi baby,” Seungcheol murmurs, wiping the tears from his cheeks. Joshua didn’t even realize he was crying. “I’m home.”

“I-I’m so sorry,” Joshua wails, burying his face into the other’s shoulder.

“Hmm? For what, baby?”

“T-that I forgot to meet you today.” Joshua breathes in Seungcheol’s scent, relearning everything about him, every inch of skin, every muscle moving under his uniform, pressing so hard against the other he was finding it hard to breathe. “I-I– Was supposed to be there, but I wasn’t!”

“It’s okay baby, talked to your friend here, and he told me why you couldn’t make it.”

“But I should’ve been there,” Joshua murmurs, taking his boyfriend’s face in his hands. “You would’ve been so happy.”

Seungcheol smiles. “You’re here now, aren’t you?”

“No, _you’re_ the one who’s here.”

“You’re right. It was a pain trying to get directions from Jeonghan.”

Joshua blinks, surprised. “Jeonghan knew?”

“Of course I did.” Joshua didn’t even realize that Jeonghan was leaning against the doorframe of the studio smiling at them. “That was what I was going to tell you when we got back here, but I guess Seungcheol beat me to it.”

“You should’ve told me!” Joshua whines, “I would’ve gone to pick him up.”

“Then you would’ve gotten in trouble with Soonyoung _and_ the professors.” Jeonghan rolls his eyes.

Joshua pouts, but lays his head back down onto Seungcheol’s chest, knowing he has lost. When Seungcheol chuckles, he can feel the rumble through his clothes and his ears seek the steady beating of the other man’s heart.

He doesn’t know how long they stay like that, content to just be held, but he knows somewhere along the lines Soonyoung leaves them and so does Jeonghan.

Then it’s just the two of them in the studio and outside the street lamps turn on. The guilty feeling in his gut is gone, replaced by bursting happiness.

“Come on Shua,” Seungcheol says eventually, “Bring me home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to _serendipiteen_ for proofreading this :") My Jihancheol heart needed to be kept in check.


End file.
